Sdl2

Today the project started looking properly toward PortMaster, with more old window-management pieces cut away, PortMaster-focused docs and Docker setup added, a launcher script put in place, and the renderer pushed further toward portability rather than desktop-only assumptions. It was also the kind of structured engineering work that suited the new workflow well, with Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot doing most of the implementation legwork while I focused on steering, checking, and making sure the end result matched the real goal rather than some beautifully wrong robot interpretation.

This was one of the big days: a lot of the remaining Allegro-era runtime code was ripped out or replaced, input moved further onto SDL with proper scancode mapping and joystick support, sound and renderer code lost more legacy baggage, and the project felt much more committed to its SDL2 future. Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot did most of the heavy lifting on the broad refactors, while I learned the increasingly useful skill of telling when the robots were being genuinely helpful and when they were just very energetically wrong.

Today was a reminder that sometimes progress looks like deleting code without setting the building on fire: unused texture and blending functions were cut, display scaling was simplified, and the SDL2 renderer path got less tangled up with leftovers from the Allegro/OpenGL era. This was also good coding-agent territory, because Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot are quite happy to take first passes at pruning and simplification, provided you keep a close eye on them and make sure they have not removed some bizarre old ritual that was secretly keeping the whole game stable.

This was a day of small, oddly specific wins that make a game feel real again: better debug handling, path utilities, blend mode fixes, sprite drawing updates, F1 to F12 key mappings, waypoint table work, and even a nudge to the main menu logo script, which had apparently chosen drama. It was also exactly the kind of fiddly glue work that coding agents are great at, so Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot handled most of the busy work while I did the supervision, because an AI will absolutely fix one thing and quietly invent two new problems nearby if you let it roam unsupervised.

Today added two extremely useful things to the revival effort: SDL2 audio support and better diagnostics, which is a polite way of saying the game got better at making noise and better at explaining itself before doing something strange. Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot were doing most of the implementation by this point, especially the repetitive conversion work, while I learned the part that matters more in the long run: how to guide, review, and correct coding agents before they turn “helpful first pass” into “fresh exciting bug.”

This was a refactoring day rather than a flashy one: the new SDL2 platform, input, and renderer code got reorganised into something more readable and sustainable, which matters because messy migration code turns every future fix into archaeology. By now Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot were doing most of the heavy lifting, and the real lesson for me was learning to manage coding agents well, because asking them to help is easy and stopping them from enthusiastically “improving” a load-bearing wall is the actual skill.

Day two was when the project stopped being just a Linux rescue and became an SDL2 migration, with new platform layers for input, windows, timing, and rendering, plus enough renderer scaffolding to draw lines, quads, textures, sprites, and rectangles while the old Allegro/OpenGL world began its slow march toward retirement. It was also when I really started using coding agents seriously, with Codex and Claude via GitHub Copilot doing most of the keystroke-heavy work while I learned the more important skill of managing them properly: breaking tasks down, reviewing changes, steering them away from confident nonsense, and using them to chew through boring but necessary scaffolding much faster than I could by hand.